This invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning castings.
Cleaning apparatus for cleaning castings has been developed and are commercially available. These prior art cleaners use high pressure water for cleaning the investment castings. However, with large castings, a substantial amount of refractory material must be removed and this material is usually removed first by a manual procedure (mechanical knockout with air hammer) before the final mechanical (high pressure water) cleaning. The manual step is time consuming, exposes the operator to dangerous airborne silica dust and sometimes results in damage to the cast device. The present system rapidly and effectively removes all the refractory material and cleans investment castings while eliminating any airborne silicon dust and danger of damaging the casting. The invention improves safety and environmental problems and improves ergonomic and body stress issues related material removal by the manual procedure. The invention also improves productivity and produces a higher quality cleaning of castings eliminating mechanical knockout, shot blasting, sandblasting and chemical removal of refractory.
It is an object of this invention to provide a novel cleaning apparatus which rapidly and effectively cleans investment castings.
A more specific object of this invention is to provide a casting cleaning system including a single high pressure nozzle which is continuously moved in a random manner while the casting is rotated in opposite directions to cause rapid and complete cleaning of the casting in a matter of minutes.
The apparatus includes a cleaning cabinet in which the casting to be cleaned is positioned. The casting is clamped between a rotary clamp and a freely rotatable table. The rotary clamp rotates in opposite directions during the cleaning operation. A single elongated lance having a nozzle at its inner end directs high pressure water against the casting. The lance is mounted for pivotal and rotative movement by a gimbal type spherical bearing and is moved in a random or stochastic manner and produces complete and rapid cleaning of the casting.